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The 34 Best Coffee Shops in Houston

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The best coffee shops in Houston, according to the experts: The Infatuation, James Beard Awards, and Michelin Guide have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Koffeteria comes out on top.

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Casaema and Catalina Coffee hold the next two places. Eater shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Houstonia next.

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  1. Rank 1. Koffeteria

    Cambodian Bakery

    The beef pho kolache alone explains why this Cambodian-influenced bakery and coffee shop landed on the New York Times' list of best bakeries in the country. Chef Vanarin Kuch, a Top Chef alum and James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, builds a menu where Southeast Asian flavors drift easily into French, Mexican, and Brazilian territory. The Salty Cambodian latte, finished with condensed milk and sourdough butter, has regulars skipping the cortado for good.


  2. Rank 2. Casaema

    Mexican Bakery

    The horchata cream doughnut sells out early, which tells you everything about the pace of a morning here. Casaema is a daytime cafe in Houston Heights rooted in Mexican foodways, with a pastry case full of conchas and guava-queso empanadas alongside a coffee menu running café de olla lattes and piloncillo chai. The chilaquiles are built on housemade chips with brisket. A James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant, and a Michelin Bib Gourmand.


    Address
    5307 N. Main St., Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Closes soon, 3 PM, in 37 min

    Tuesday 7 AM–3 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  3. A coffee shop in the East End where the menu reads like a choose-your-own-adventure: classic pour overs and cold brews on one side, house lattes spiked with cinnamon and raw honey on the other, and a CBD infusion option for anyone who knows what they want from life. Empanadas and breakfast tacos fill out the food side, with barbacoa on weekends for the committed. Loteria nights and paint-and-sip events keep regulars coming back between caffeine runs.


  4. A three-story former church building with soaring ceilings and a rooftop deck overlooking the Houston skyline is a pretty good argument for a second latte. This bustling coffee shop leans into its bones, mixing plush sofas and good acoustics with a menu of espresso drinks, chai, and matcha. The Big Tex, clocking in at four ounces of espresso, is there for the committed.


    Address
    802 Shepherd Dr, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 6 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–6 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  5. Rank 6. Boomtown Coffee

    Craft Coffee

    The Shakarato, espresso shaken with agave, orange, and bitters, is a good reason to wander into this craft coffee shop on 19th Street. Small-batch beans get roasted and brewed with the kind of attention that makes ordering drip feel like a decision. Avocado toast and seasonal veggie tacos cover the hunger angle, and the pastries are the sort you eat standing at the counter before you've found a seat.


    Address
    242 W 19th St, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 7 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–7 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  6. Address
    612 Live Oak St, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 10 PM

    Tuesday 6 AM–10 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  7. Fifth Vessel is a small, bright coffee shop near the bayou, furnished with midcentury classroom desks and tropical flowers, so you'll feel like a very caffeinated student on a field trip. The rotating specials have names like the Duvet, a clove and cinnamon flat white, and there's a long matcha list. Outlets are scarce and the laptop crowd knows it, so arrive early if you plan to work.


    Address
    104 N Main St, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 7 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–7 PM

    Online
    Website
  8. Rank 6. Las Perras Cafe

    Latina-owned Coffee


  9. The Garden Oaks flagship is a two-story coffee shop that also runs roasting classes if you'd like to graduate from customer to participant. Cold brew and Spanish lattes are the draws, alongside breakfast croissants that give people a reason to arrive before noon. Luce has spread across Houston and its suburbs, which tells you something about how the neighborhood took to it.


  10. A coffee shop and cocktail bar where the menu refuses to pick a lane, and that's the whole point. Weekend brunch runs from oysters with aguachile granita to chilaquiles and lobster rolls, while the drinks column blurs the line with carajillos and cold-brew shakерatos. The Caesar cups, eaten by hand, are a specific kind of commitment. A Rex Hospitality project in the Sawyer Yards neighborhood.


  11. A porch plopped in the driveway and a wall of giant palms make the front door a small scavenger hunt. Inside it's a coffeehouse by day and a cocktail bar by night, all worn midcentury furniture, with laptop people nursing cortados and a short wine list that includes an orange. The food is croissants from elsewhere, and the espresso martini is on the menu, as it legally must be.


  12. The cold drip is made to order and poured over ice in front of you, which is either theater or reassurance depending on how many times you've been handed yesterday's batch somewhere else. This Downtown coffee shop leans into iced drinks and frappe-style blends, with oat milk as the default and brown sugar, honey, or cinnamon doing most of the flavor work. Breakfast tacos and pastries fill out the menu, and grab-and-go bottles cover the days when patience runs short.


  13. The light pours through floor-to-ceiling windows in a way that makes everyone look like they're having a good morning, even before the coffee. Sunday Press is an all-day café with a drive-through, a solid espresso program, and a menu that stretches to açai bowls and sandwiches for when coffee alone won't cut it. Come evening it quietly becomes a cocktail lounge, which is either convenient or dangerous depending on your schedule.


    Address
    3315 Ella Blvd, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 10 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–10 PM

    Online
    Website

  14. Address
    101 Aurora St, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 6 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–6 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  15. Rank 6. Third Place

    Collaborative Coffee

    The name is a sociologist's term for the gathering spots between home and work, and the owners take it literally. This daytime coffee shop and café shares a kitchen with the restaurant Jun, run by Top Chef alums, and rotating chef residencies mean the lunch menu shifts week to week. Pastries, salads, and matcha drinks anchor the everyday offerings, but the rotating kitchen keeps the regulars checking Instagram before they order.


  16. Rank 6. Un Caffe

    Coffee

    A frozen coffee bear rides the top of the iced citrus Americano here, keeping the drink cold without diluting it, which tells you everything about how seriously this Midtown coffee shop thinks about a cup. The beans are sourced globally and roasted in-house, and the room runs warm enough that regulars tend to linger. Somewhere between a neighborhood hangout and a serious roaster's project.


    Address
    3217 Milam St, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 6 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–6 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  17. Rank 6. Xela

    Coffee


  18. Rank 20. Agora

    Mediterranean


    Address
    1712 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 2 AM

    Tuesday 9 AM–2 AM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram


  19. Café de olla arrives in a clay mug at this Latin-inflected coffee shop tucked into a converted bungalow in Montrose. The traditional Mexican brew, steeped with cinnamon and piloncillo, is reason enough to visit, but empanadas and tamales with plantain chips make a reasonable case for staying through lunch. Laptops outnumber idle hands on most afternoons, and the horchata keeps the non-coffee crowd from feeling like an afterthought.


  20. Rank 20. Cariño Coffee

    Mexican Coffee Shop

    A maiz latte made with corn milk is either the thing that convinces you or the thing you have to explain to your friends later. This Mexican coffee shop sets up inside a Northside bar during daytime hours, serving a short menu of coffee drinks built around Mexican flavors, from Mazapán-infused espresso to matcha laced with Fruit Loops. It's a coffee shop that knows exactly what kind of fun it wants to have.



  21. Rank 20. Kefita Coffee

    Ethiopian Coffee Shop

    An Ethiopian coffee shop in Midtown, Kefita takes the origin story of coffee seriously. You can go the purist route with a pour-over or drip, or lean into house lattes built around honey cardamom or Ethiopian spice syrups. The sambusas and vegan monkey bread are worth the detour from your usual coffee-and-laptop routine. Once a month the team holds a traditional coffee ceremony, which turns a Tuesday into something worth rearranging.


  22. Rank 20. Kohiko Coffee House

    Japanese Coffee Shop



  23. Address
    3321 Stanford St, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 9 PM

    Tuesday 7 AM–9 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  24. Sunday Press is an all-day café in Hermann Park with a drive-through, which is a bold amenity for a place also serving butterfly pea lattes. The light-filled room runs on honey sea salt lattes, nitro cold brew, açai bowls, and sandwiches, so you can order breakfast or a salad you'll mention to someone. After dark it turns into a cocktail lounge called Sunday Social, which is the same room with its personality changed.


  25. Sunday Press is a bright, all-day café with a drive-through, which is how you know Houston built it. The menu leans wellness: butterfly pea lattes, açai bowls, cold-pressed juice, plus the pastries you'll order to cancel that out. Houstonia has it on its list of the city's best coffee shops. After dark it becomes a cocktail lounge called Sunday Social, same room, fewer laptops.



  26. Rank 20. The Coffee Garden

    Creative Coffee

    A pistachio cream latte spiked with crushed spices and a hint of white chocolate is the kind of thing that turns a coffee run into a small event. This coffee shop inside the Conservatory food hall near the Galleria keeps the menu creative alongside the classics, with an ube cold foam so purple it looks like a prop. Non-caffeine options like charcoal lemonade and a hibiscus-pineapple-cinnamon tea mean no one gets left out of the fun.


    Address
    5353 W Alabama St, Unit 100, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until 6 PM

    Tuesday 8 AM–6 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  27. Rank 20. Wild

    Coffee

    Hemp-infused lattes and rum-spiked coffee cocktails share the menu at this Heights café and cocktail bar that doubles as a dispensary. CBD or Delta-8 goes into the elixirs, and the shelves hold oils and gummies to take home alongside the merch. It occupies an interesting lane somewhere between third-wave coffee shop and wellness boutique, which the crowd seems to find perfectly normal on a Tuesday morning.


    Address
    2121 N Shepherd Dr Suite C, Houston, TX · Houston
    Hours

    Open now, until midnight

    Tuesday 8 AM–Midnight

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

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